


happy bi-rthday to you, too

by redreys



Series: the adventures of bi jon [3]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: (sort of! isn't strictly a coming out story but it's mentioned), Bisexual Character, Coming Out, Gen, for the series: actually jon was so clearly bi most people knew, i love the s1 archive gang and i think they loved each other, ohh and guest mention for rosie as well, this is an elias bouchard hate zone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:47:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28582998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redreys/pseuds/redreys
Summary: “Speaking of my genius ideas,” Tim goes, cutting short herembarrassinglysappy considerations, “do you want to see what I got for Jon?”Sasha frowns. “I thought we were going to surprise him with Martin’s cake.”“Yeah, we still are, but this is the decoy.”“The… decoy.”“Yeah,” he says, a little too excitedly. “Just- tell me what you think it is.”“That isclearlya bottle of wine,” she replies, just about instantly, because, well. It is. Unless he got Jon a weird energy drink or something.“Mh-mh. You are right about that one.”Hard to not be. You can see the cap peeking out of the bag.“What’s so special about a wine bottle?”
Relationships: Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood & Sasha James & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Tim Stoker, Sasha James & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Sasha James & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Tim Stoker, Sasha James & Tim Stoker
Series: the adventures of bi jon [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2121003
Comments: 28
Kudos: 194
Collections: bi jon sims celebration





	happy bi-rthday to you, too

**Author's Note:**

> writing this fic for [jon sims bi month](https://jonsimsbipride.tumblr.com/), which you should /definitely/ check out (yes I'm a mod so i guess I'm biased but i promise it genuinely is such a nice project), but, most of all, I'm writing this fic because of a funny message [jaya](https://tolbyccian.tumblr.com/) sent in a group chat about Tim gifting Jon a pride-themed wine bottle for his birthday.  
> hope you enjoy my fic!

_Crunch. Crunch. Crunch._

Sasha raises her feet and moves it just a little to the right, then steps down on the pavement. _Crunch._

“Oh, that was a good one,” she says, staring down at the crumbled remains of the leaf. She is _almost_ late for work, and she _should_ be done with this by now, but if there’s something Sasha James is not willing to give up on, that’s the precious opportunity to indulge herself in meaningless joys, _especially_ if she is going to spend a day working under the dim lights of the archive.

There is a pretty big pile of leaves pressed to the external wall of an apartment building, just before the street opens in a crossroad, and Sasha has been checking that spot on and off for a couple of minutes now, eagerly waiting for her golden chance.

Eventually, one last person gets out of the apartment door, and closes it behind them. The stars align, and the pavement empties. There are no other passersby in sight.

Sasha looks left, right; down to her boots, nodding in encouragement— _I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully, guys._ She breathes in, bracing for impact, and then takes the necessary steps towards the wall, and finally jumps into the small puddle of leaves.

There’s quite a lot of them, so they cover her feet right up to her ankle, and the sensation is delightful. She laughs, feeling a bit too much like a little kid in Christmas movies, and starts kicking the leaves left and right, isolating her favourite ones to step on them properly.

Maybe thirty seconds of nothing but happy sounds and mindless movements go by, before a terrible, terrible man steps into the scene to break the peace.

“Hey, partner in crime!” Tim says- no, _shouts,_ vibrant and annoying and full of unrestrained energy, and Sasha all but shouts back. It’s just an intelligible curse word mixed with a distorted version of Tim’s name, but it’s enough to make Tim laugh. Cocky bastard.

“ _Why_ did you have to ruin this for me?” she says, now with her back to the wall, simultaneously trying to calm down her heartbeat and hide away the fondness she already feels blooming in her chest.

Tim stands just in front of her, wearing his usual brown jacket and an ironed black shirt underneath it. His hair is loose, and he looks… bright. More awake than usual. Excited, like he can’t wait for the day to start.

“I did _not_ ruin this for you,” he replies, matter-of-factly, and Sasha raises her eyebrows.

“You did and you know it.”

He holds out his phone in his right hand, triumphantly, and shows her the still, blurry frame of a woman standing in a small mountain of autumn leaves. “I did not ruin anything. In fact, I preserved the moment for future generations.”

Sasha is taken aback for a moment, though she knows she shouldn’t be. _Of course_ he would do that. That’s Tim’s thing, after all. Careful, warm surprises. Gifts you don’t need to say _thank you_ for, but that will stay with you anyway.

“Delete that,” she says, cause the game only works if they both play it, and Tim laughs.

“I think it should be another birthday gift for Jon. Readily available blackmail material, except—”

“Oh, shut up.”

“— _except_ it wouldn’t work as blackmail, cause you simply look too cute in the video. I think the only rational response to seeing it is asking for your hand in marriage.”

Sasha sighs, biting her lips the way she always does when she is pretending to think about something really hard. Eventually, she crosses her arms, and smiles; wraps her gratitude in a package she knows he’ll accept. “If what you say is true, I think you have to be really careful who you show it to.”

“Way ahead of you, James,” he replies, cheerfully, “I have this under control. Jon is married to his work so it won’t affect him, and you have already rejected me once. You are safe for now.”

“What a relief, _Stoker_. I guess next time I get a partner, I’ll know who to ask for a secret weapon.”

Tim’s eyes widen, with all the exaggerated wonder of a little boy at his first dance. “Oh, I think you have misunderstood me, miss. This is a fun trick, but you won’t need the extra help.”

“Stop with that,” she says, stepping out of the leaves to meet him in the middle and lightly smack his shoulder. Obviously, she knows that the clear delight in her tone makes her complaints somewhat hard to believe, but credibility was never the point here.

And, indeed, in all his unmitigated charisma and insufferable perseverance, Tim only keeps on smiling. “I’ll flirt with you at your wedding and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Sasha gives him a look—one that goes back to her seventeen-year-old self, all joy and warmth and gentle wondering for a future that she was always sure would come—and then, just when it seems like all irony is lost, she rolls her eyes through it. This time, Tim _really_ needed to get his vital amount of fake outrage out of her answer, or he would have lost the opening for the second act of his joke.

“And if your partner minds,” he adds, _thrilled_ to get the spotlight, and here it comes— “I’ll just flirt with them too. I’m all about equality, Sash.”

She laughs, respectfully acting as if she hadn’t seen it coming, and nods in appreciation. “What a flawless solution.” Her movements are theatrical, almost mockingly so, implicitly calling Tim’s scenario silly, but she knows that she wouldn't want her future to go in any other way. She wouldn’t get along with someone who doesn’t like Tim. It just wouldn’t work.

“Speaking of my genius ideas,” Tim goes, cutting short her _embarrassingly_ sappy considerations, “do you want to see what I got for Jon?”

He is gesturing to the tall, fancy paper bag he is holding in his right hand, and shaking slightly, prompting her to guess what it might be.

Sasha frowns. “I thought we were going to surprise him with Martin’s cake.”

“Yeah, we still are, but this is the decoy.”

“The… decoy.”

“Yeah,” he says, a little too excitedly. “Just- tell me what you think it is.”

“That is _clearly_ a bottle of wine,” she replies, just about instantly, because, well. It is. Unless he got Jon a weird energy drink or something.

“Mh-mh. You are right about that one.”

Hard to not be. You can see the cap peeking out of the bag.

“What’s so special about a wine bottle?”

Tim moves a little closer, both hands holding the paper bag, and then he looks around conspiratorially, preparing to reveal his cool little secret. He’s a little bit less careful with that than Sasha is. A lady is walking by with a journal in her hand, proceeding at the speed of a turtle, and he doesn’t even seem to register her. _We all know who would die first in a horror movie_ , she thinks, though she doesn’t dare to interrupt him with it. He did just surprise _her_ after all. Arguments about Sasha’s potential survival skills would be made, and then it would turn into a twenty-minute discussion about cinema and horror tropes.

“Do you want to see what the wine looks like?” he asks, and she sighs.

“Tim. Should I be worried about this?”

“Can I just show you the bottle, _please_.” He looks so damn proud of himself, Sasha almost wishes she could let the wait go on for longer and have him boil in his excitement for a while.

She is too curious for that, though.

“Okay. Fine. Show me this fucking bottle.”

“ _Finally,_ ” he says, and then takes out a- well, how to describe it.

It’s certainly… an unusual design. Flamboyant, if you will.

Sasha is frankly at a loss for words.

“It’s not June,” she observes, as if that’ll make the bottle go away.

“I am well aware.”

“Did you buy this in June?”

“No, I bought it yesterday.”

“Okay,” she says, still processing. “And you got this for Jon.”

“Yes.”

“For Jon?”

“Yeah.”

“What makes you think he’ll like that?”

Tim takes a step back, genuinely surprised, but above all so absurdly entertained she is proud of him for somehow mostly keeping his composure. “ _Sasha James._ ”

She crosses her arms, sighs. Smiles a bit, cause she can’t help it. “ _What?_ ”

“I trusted you. I had faith in you.”

Sasha lets out a weird, half-hearted laugh, and yeah, maybe, lowkey, she _is_ just a little embarrassed. Usually, she is pretty good at spotting these things. If Tim knows enough about Jon to feel comfortable in gifting him… _that_ , then maybe she could have made the connection herself.

“Listen,” she tries anyway, “you don’t know for certain-”

“I thought you had it. I thought you could tell, I thought you paid attention to those in our midst.”

“It isn’t an exact science!” Sasha protests, but Tim just shakes his head and puts the bottle back into the bag.

“You’ll see,” he says.

“Maybe you could just explain to me-”

“ _You’ll see.”_

Sasha looks down at her feet, at the red of the leaves and the brown of her vaguely tainted boots. _This is a good day for a birthday_.

“Fine,” she concedes, and Tim smiles and offers her his free arm so they can walk together.

Sasha looks back up to him, and concedes to that, too. After all, if it’s a good day for a birthday, Tim is the person best suited for running it. She might just as well trust him in the process.

* * *

When they get into the office, Jon is waiting for them at Tim’s desk.

He is leaning on the edge of the table with a couple of documents in his hands, and when he hears Tim and Sasha coming in, he looks up and waves them hello.

It’s always a peculiar thing, to see him in the mornings and realize that he isn’t a different person from the researcher Sasha first spoke to. For a man who moves so much, so clearly driven by curiosity and fear, he doesn’t seem all that used to change. In a strange way, though steadiness is not necessarily a quality Sasha would choose for him, he does feel like an anchor.

She hasn’t changed her mind about his promotion—if things were right in the world, _she_ would have been the archivist, and not him—but there’s something to be said about her willingness to trust him.

Sasha looks at him now and finds that she has faith in his efforts. She listens to the questions he has for Tim as she opens up his laptop, she follows his worries from a distance and tries to guess what they might be when he doesn’t outright state them. In short, she cares about his well being, and she wants to make this work easier for him. This is not really news for Sasha (she is aware she likes the guy, by now) but it’s nice to acknowledge the feeling when it hits her so clearly.

At some point, when it seems like Jon might be close to ending his ‘ghosts do not exist and even if they did they mostly definitely did not show up in this girl’s garden’ monologue, Sasha’s phone lights up.

It’s Martin, from the ‘archival assistants👀' group chat, telling them that _‘i got the cake ready, btw! all went well. got here first and hid it in that cupboard no one ever uses’._

Sasha looks up at him to smile and give him a thumbs up, and, well—they only share a brief glance before Martin lowers his head and starts working again, but it’s undeniable that he seems happier than usual. Sasha doesn’t need to guess why. Somehow, just like Martin and Tim, she also cannot wait to give Jonathan Sims a gift that might or might not marginally improve his day.

In a moment of intense, reckless hope, she allows herself to wish for a permanently healthy work-environment. Elias Bouchard might make that dream hard to achieve, but they have got a pretty good team here. They can at least try.

“Wait, boss!”, Tim says, suddenly and at a higher volume, and Sasha instinctually shifts her attention so that now she is staring ahead, watching Tim as he takes a step away from his table with the bag in his hand, and Jon as he looks back at him, half turned in the direction of his office.

“What is it?” Jon asks, mildly worried, and Sasha doesn’t really know what to do.

Is she supposed to ignore them, act as if none of this was happening? She is _certain_ that Jon must be okay with people knowing about his identity, or Tim would never have said a single word to her about it, so she isn’t worried about Jon knowing she saw Tim’s gift, but she is still hesitant to just… spy on them.

“Little bird told me that today is a very special day,” Tim whispers, childish-like in the way he emphasizes the words, and Jon first frowns, then relaxes into understanding.

“Damn it,” he mutters, and it’s in that moment that Sasha makes her choice. Even if she wanted to, she’d have no way of ignoring this as it happens. Tim and Jon are just too close to her desk. Might as well witness this openly.

“Happy birthday, Jon!” she interrupts, before Tim can reply, and Jon sighs and begrudgingly thanks her. Martin is the last one to echo the birthday wishes, and Jon turns to his corner and thanks him, too.

Eventually, he is back to facing Tim, and in spite of all his uptight facade, there’s a small smile growing on his lips.

“How did you find this out?” he asks, and Tim shrugs in all his cartoon-villain glory.

“Who knows? Maybe it came to me in a prophetic dream.”

“Right. Of course. How could I rule that out.”

The tone Jon uses when he is talking to Tim is terrifyingly close to Sasha’s. Equal parts fond and annoyed. It feels strange, to see her affection partially reflected in Jon’s behaviour, but Sasha is always so happy to know Tim has someone else willing to watch his back—it’s nice to count on Jon for that, too.

“I am an ethereal being and you’ll never know my secrets,” Tim replies, as he steps closer to Jon and eventually hands him the bag, and Sasha braces for what’s to come.

Again, she isn’t worried or anything like that, but she _is_ curious to see Jon’s reaction.

“Sure you are,” Jon says, almost to himself, and then wordlessly takes the wine out of the bag.

What Jonathan Sims, head archivist of the Magnus Institute, is holding in his hands is a horrendously over the top pride-themed wine bottle.

Half of it is covered by a glittery, rainbow-coloured label, which says ‘barefoot bubbly’ in the centre. Obviously, because these designers aren’t playing around, ‘bubbly’ is written in rainbow colours to match the background.

Just to top it off, Tim appears to have tied three ribbons on the neck of the bottle, each for the colours of the bi flag.

“I thought it fit the vibe,” Tim says as Jon stares down at it, trying to justify his creative decision, and Sasha bites back a laugh.

There’s a moment of intense anticipation before Jon just nods, and looks at Tim to thank him.

Admittedly, Sasha is somewhat taken aback by the lack of shock on Jon’s part, and when she tries to read his expression, she finds that his face is not really doing anything strange. No, scratch that, his face is not really doing anything at all. He looks grateful, yeah, appropriately so given the circumstance, and considerably more relaxed than he did ten minutes ago, but not much else.

Tim smiles at him. “Glad you appreciate it, boss.”

“We can have a toast later this afternoon, if you want,” Jon replies, as if he were holding a perfectly standard wine bottle that simply fits so well in an Institute devoted to studying the supernatural, and Tim nods in agreement.

“Sure thing,” Sasha says, trying to break out of her disbelief. “Would love to.”

Jon looks at Martin to take notice of his participation and make sure he heard the exchange, and then turns back to Tim; says: “we can continue this later, then. thank you all for the birthday wishes”, and finally just… walks back to his office.

Sasha stares at this silhouette of dark ironed clothes carrying around what basically registers as a pride flag, and keeps her gaze still until the nonchalant walk in between the pile of boxes is over, and Jon closes the door behind him.

“Told you so,” Tim says, _immediately_ , and Sasha laughs.

“Not a word!” she protests, as Tim drags a chair to her desk and sits right in front of her, pushing away her stuff to rest his elbows on the table. “Not a single world! Why was he so calm?”

“I mean, what did you want him to do? Personally walk up to you and Martin and go: _hello, I think you can tell from context that I am bisexual. Were you aware of that, and do you have any questions?_ Besides, I think Martin already knew.”

Sasha rolls her eyes at him, exasperated though she knows he is mis-replying on purpose. “I am not talking about that, idiot, I am talking about the fact that you managed to buy him a pride-themed wine bottle in the middle of autumn. Who the fuck does that.”

“It was part of the prophetic dream, Sash. Had to make it happen.”

Sasha is left shaking her head through a smile.

When she glances at the clock to check the time, though, she realises that it’s not as late as she had feared. This isn’t a worrying delay yet.

“Will you tell me, now?” she asks, trying to drag out the moment as much as she can. "How you knew about Jon?”

Tim picks up one of her pens and starts elegantly moving it through his fingers, in that specifically cool, swift way you can only learn about from a youtube video at two p.m. on a Sunday. _Show off._

“Well,” he starts, moving his chair just a little closer, “it isn’t that grand of a story. I initially got the feeling he might be bi because of the way he reacted to my jokes? I mean it’s not like I ever went off about my romantic history in front of unassuming colleagues, but sometimes I felt comfortable enough to make small jokes, and... you know how it goes. Self-proclaimed allies try to awkwardly join in, some people just laugh, and others make those specific small comments that are a little too natural and fitting to come from straight people.”

“It was all still just a vague guess, until a couple a weeks ago we were getting out of the Institute together and I unlocked my phone to see that I got a message on tinder. It was one of those biphobic conversation breakers that basically goes ‘oh, I see from your bio that you are bi? interested in threesomes, eye emoji?’ and I guess I let out an exasperated sigh because Jon asked me if I was okay. Told him not to worry about it, wasn’t a big deal, but then he asked again and I just showed him the message.”

“He said something like ‘ah, I’m sorry. I know the feeling’, and he seemed comfortable enough with the whole thing that I felt like it was okay to reply ‘you do?’. At that point he told me that yeah, he was bi too, and by the way I shouldn’t bother hiding it from anyone, it isn’t really a secret and he often forgets he hasn’t already come out to new friends.”

Tim has dropped the pen by now, too focused on the story to keep up with the movement. It feels too obvious of a response, but Sasha can’t help it—she smiles at him and gently bumps her fist with his. “It’s nice that you could connect in that way.”

“It is,” Tim agrees, then smiles back. First, in genuine joy, then in something much closer to smugh playfulness. “To be honest, though, he didn’t _truly_ need to say anything. I knew from the moment I saw him. Have you _seen_ his nails? The earring? I am honestly shocked you couldn’t already tell.”

“Oh, shut up,” Sasha hisses, kicking him under the table. “Stop insulting my gaydar and go back to your corner.”

Tim moves back with his chair and puts her pens and papers back when they were originally. It is a small gesture, but Sasha can’t deny that is sweet. “No need to get defensive.”

“Shut. Up.”

“Better be in time for Jon’s surprise later,” he adds as he gets up, stubbornly deflecting her complaints, and Sasha nods. Loves him for it, deep down.

“I will, now _go._ ”

Tim raises his hands— _I_ am _going, miss James_ —and finally walks back to his desk.

A little while later, Sasha realises she has lost the last page of a printed statement, and since she can’t find the file on her computer, she gets up to ask Jon if he can help her. The office’s door is open, and Jon’s table is a _mess._ He seems to be in the middle of cleaning it up, so he doesn’t immediately notice that Sasha is there.

In the split second it takes her to think of what she should say, Jon picks up the wine bottle from his desk, probably with the intent of putting it somewhere else that isn’t drowning in statements, and then hesitates for a moment, and smiles. As if warmed by the sight.

When Jon looks up at her, suddenly aware of her presence, they are _both_ smiling.

It’s not till Sasha is sitting in her chair again, away from both Jon and Tim, that she realises that neither of them felt the need to hide their joy.

* * *

[ A little before lunch, once Elias is finally gone, Tim, Martin and Sasha are helping Jon clean out what’s left of his party.

“I can’t believe Elias was there, too,” Martin says, as he puts the last slice of the cake on a new plate so they can bring it to Rosie later, and Sasha sighs.

“Yeah. He is _not_ a pleasant man.”

Tim scoffs, annoyed. “Damn right he isn’t. ‘ _Oh, I’ll join you, too’_. Fuck off, not on this bubbly you won’t, hetoid.”

Jon stops dead in his tracks, with a hand still holding a half-open garbage bag, and turns to Tim with genuine delight in his eyes. “Hetoid?”

“What, am I wrong?”

Martin and Sasha both start laughing, and, eventually, Tim and Jon join them too. ]

[ It is, indeed, quite a good day for a birthday. ]

**Author's Note:**

> jaya is also responsible for that bit of tim's dialogue about him wanting to flirt with sasha's partner, too + [seraf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraf/pseuds/seraf) is the genius mind behind "not on this bubbly you wont, hetoid". thank you, both of you, for your invaluable services. 
> 
> as always, comments are appreciated, and you can find me on tumblr as [mxrspider](https://mxrspider.tumblr.com/)


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